chew on this

Igot a message on my Bear 411 site on Sunday from an 18 year old kid. I found out he was 18 after I clicked his profile. I could see his thumbnail pictures, and some were of him in various naked sex positions. 18 years old!

I couldn’t get it out of my head. I deleted his message without replying, but now I wish I had replied. Or maybe not because I’d just irritate him by asking what would be (to him) stupid questions about his life.

Because I can’t relate to his experience at all. When I was 18, it was a completely different world. I was not a particularly sheltered kid, but I know that the concept of baring my all to the world would have been unthinkable. Hell, the idea of beig out was unthinkable.

I turned 18 on December 7th 1981. We were in the middle of the cold war, and Reagan was only in his first dark year of office. A few months before my 18th birthday, a wierd cancer started to kill gay men in Los Angeles and New York. they were calling it GRIDS (Gay Related Immune Deficiency Syndrome) later becoming a disease called AIDS. Three weeks earlier, IBM unveiled to the world a device called a “PC” in Las Vegas. Why in the world would you need a personal computer? What would you DO with it? Balance a checkbook?

Anyway, what I’m trying to illustrate is it was a completely different world then. We were never exposed to a quarter of what kids deal with today. We had “All in the Family”, and they have “Sex in the City”.

I’m sad at the loss of childhood. These kids don’t get to be young and innocent anymore. You’re 18 and you’re a junior porn star. Nice.

In most respects, the law says he is an adult. Of course we know he is still just a kid. I would find it very creepy to have a kid young enough to be, well, my kid, cruise me on a site like that. Good thing I like my men closer to my own ripe old age of 42.
Wait, oh God – I’m 42! When did that happen? Arrgghh…
Oh, you forgot one thing about back in ’81, we still had to listen to music on LP’s. No CD’s or downloads, bloody records made out of vinyl for crying out loud!

Kory-
I also remember seeing my first VCR gadget at a rich friend’s house in 1981. the idea of being able to capture on tape a t.v. show or movie and watch it whenever you want, as many times as you want was amazing. I was so jealous! – r.c.

I rememebr the 80’s too. I got in so much trouble at school for having a huge picture of Reagan with a hitler moustache. Growing up in OC was weird ( note there is no THE in OC). But it always amazes me how you cannot blaspheme the the great prophet Reagan yet look at all the hypocrite Repubs and their never ending trashing of JFK and Clinton. Oh is there no end to conservative hypocrisy. What?! Cheney declares himself not part of the executive? gee where are the repubs to scream “where’s the outrage?”